Georges St-Pierre Excited for New Challenges in Much Different Welterweight Division

The last time Georges St-Pierre appeared in the UFC Octagon in April 2011 and defeated Jake Shields, it looked as if he had cleared out all of the challengers at 170 pounds.

Unfortunately for St-Pierre, a knee injury forced him into surgery and out of the cage for the rest of 2011 and what will end up being most of 2012, as well.

But as the Canadian champion embarks on his return to action in November, he comes back to an entirely new list of contenders at welterweight. Mainstays like Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck are still around, but after they suffered recent losses, St-Pierre will now be greeted by new top ten competitors like Martin Kampmann and Johny Hendricks.

It’s safe to say Georges St-Pierre returns to a whole different world than the one he left a year ago.

“I feel a lot more motivation right now. It’s exciting. Look for bigger and better challenges.”

The first challenge that greets him upon his return is UFC interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit at UFC 154 in Montreal this November. Condit earned the shot by defeating UFC bad boy Nick Diaz earlier this year.

For most of his career, Condit has been known as a power striker with slick submissions, who loves the knockout blow. But in his fight with Diaz, Condit attacked with precision and employed a strategy that befuddled and confused his opponent for the better part of 25 minutes.

St-Pierre was watching closely and he knows that Condit is more than just a striker with heavy punches and vicious knees. He now knows he’s a complete mixed martial artist with a bag full of tricks he can surely unload when they meet at UFC 154.

“He can change, that’s why he’s so good. He can change the way he fights according to his opponent. That’s why he’s so good and I know that,” St-Pierre said. “I’m going to take that fight and fight the best I can, and give it all I can.”

In his absence, St-Pierre’s name has come up often with the other welterweights in the division. Some have talked about him with respect, others not so much, but it doesn’t matter much to the long reigning welterweight champion.

Talk or no talk, St-Pierre is looking forward to gunning for each contender, one by one, until he beats them all.

“I’m going to hit as hard as I can,” said St-Pierre. “Regardless whether they talk bad or not.”

He fights for a living, how the eff can he be scared? Just because he may not want to fight somebody who can easily make 205 and he is small for 170? Grow up. Im sure your dumbass wouldnt figh Silva OR GSP for that matter.

MrAdidas

I guess silva is scared to fight Jon jones. It’s the exact same thing.

RonnieV

Adidas, do you dream about GSP’s loins when you go to bed? Your boy is done, can’t wait to see him get his ass kicked.

Triggerman99

And Jones is scared to fight JDS……and Ben Henderson is scared of GSP…..and Jose Aldo is scared to fight Ben Henderson……and who gives a $hit?
Let the guys fight in the division that they fight in, and stop force-feeding everybody this superfight debate BS.

MaritalArtist

GSP has said in the past that he’s afraid of his opponents. But that’s what sets the fire from within to practice extra hard and be extra ready. When was our Neanderthal ancestors the strongest? When they were being chased by large animals!

fries171

GSP is a great fighter but it sounds like he don’t want the fight. Is he scared? NO but does he think he could win? NO. I think silva and gsp is just another one of those fight that will happen too late.i’d rather see jone and silva over gsp. now two years ago id love to see that fight.

lawrensco

Once GSP get’s back in the octagon you’ll start remembering that he’s been one of the pound for pound best for half a decade, he hasn’t fought in a while therefore you forget about him. Once he finishes Condit everyone will be pumped to watch him match up talents againt Silva.

MaritalArtist

I’m just not so sure he’ll finish Condit. He’s hard to finish.

lawrensco

Yeah I’m aware it’s mostly just wishful thinking, I do however think he’ll get the W. Either way I’m excited to see him back in the cage.

gnodeb

Weidman saw what Sonnen did with his mouth so he tried to. But his trash talking skills are nowhere to Sonnen’s so UFC ignored him. Don’t think AS knows who Weidman is…

MrAdidas

Well he better start to pay more attention, he beat Maia worst than silva did and he did it with 2 weeks of training, while Silva had a full training camp. Not sure why silva wouldn’t fight weidman bc he’s a no name, but he’ll fight bonnar? Yeah that’s a huge PPV draw, I’ve been waiting since Bonnar vs. Griffin to see Silva vs. Bonnar.

Spence_Gill

I think it’s a smart decision for GSP to turn down a fight with Silva. Silva is a long, tall Middleweight, and GSP is a shorter welterweight who would look tiny at 185. GSP now has a list of top contenders that could pose a good threat of taking his belt. Silva will continue to turn down top contenders and will retire soon. The odds of this fight happening are slim, as my desire to see this fight is as well.

GSP doesn’t not walk around over 200 pounds. He’s even stated he would need time to put on the pounds to fight Silva if he went up in weight. He always kept his weight around 185-187 b/c he never wanted to have negative effects of cutting to much weight. After the Alves fight he put on around 7 pounds of solid muscle b/c he felt the weight difference between them. Besides him being short would make him look even bigger, he’s 5 ft 10 inches tall. He’s pretty much the perfect size beast in that division.

MaritalArtist

First of all, Silva has never actually tried to knock out Munoz in practice. Yes, Munoz can out-wrestle Silva…. But we all know what will happen if they fight for real. I do think Weidman has the best odds vs Silva, except for maybe GSP and jones and JDS.

MaritalArtist

GSP would clean out the middleweight division.

fightcrazy

I find Martin’s summary of the Condit Diaz fight ridiculous. You claim Condit befuddled and confused Diaz, that is just bs, he ran, jabbed and ran again. He turned an otherwise possible great fight into another one of that teams run and hide fights. Diaz wasn’t confused, he just wanted to fight. It doesn’t matter Martin always writes **** about Diaz, 90% of all UFC fighters had Diaz the winner including the owners of the UFC. To say Diaz was confused by Condit because some **** head Judges who probably can not touch their freaken toes much like Mr. Martin voted Condit the winner is agreeing with these piss poor Judges who are obviously sleeping and not watching the fight. I wait eagerly for that rematch and Diaz entertaining the MMA fan with a real fight. Nick Diaz is the most exciting fighter in MMA. Sorry Mr Martin you are just a hater.